IBA, insurers to meet soon on new insurance, pension schemes

The umbrella lobby group of the lenders, Indian Banks Association (IBA), is likely to convene a meeting with insurers shortly to discuss the implementation of the various insurance and pension schemes announced in the Budget.

“Our next meeting will be held with the IBA to finalise the implementation of various insurance and pension schemes announced in the Budget. The meeting will held shortly here,” a senior official of New India Assurance told PTI.

But he did not specify by when the meeting would be held.

Some of the issues that may come up for discussions include how to collect the premia for the schemes announced and how to issue certificates and how data will be transferred to insurance companies.

Besides, issues like who will collect the claim document and at what point the claim would be delivered will also figure during the interaction, the official said.

A meeting was held by financial services secretary Hasmukh Adia on March 3 in New Delhi to discuss the operational aspects of the three schemes declared in the Budget. These are the Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyothi Bima Yojana and the Atal Pension Yojana.

The meeting was attended by Pension Fund Regulatory & Development Authority chairman Hemant Contractor and its members, LIC chairman S K Roy and New India Assurance director Sanath Kumar who represented the general insurance public sector insurers (GIPSA).

The meeting discussed the operational procedures like enrolment, data sharing, premia collection, remittance and other aspects. The schemes would operate through Adhaar/Jan Dhan platform and would be streamed through the banks. The enrolment would start in April and the schemes are likely to be implemented from June.

“For reaching out to customers we have to depend on the banks. We are not directly dealing with customers. All the required paper work for the schemes will be done by the banks,” said GIPSA chairman G Srinivasan, who is the chairman and MD of New India Assurance.

Each bank will choose an insurer of its own to provide cover to its customers who are also the beneficiary of the Jan Dhan Yojana. The banks, who will pay the premium for the insurance schemes, may tab their existing bank assurance partners to implement the schemes.